To smoke or not to smoke

WindyAK · December 2003

Good morning,

I work for a City government. I have been tasked with instituting a tobacco policy. As all of our buildings are public, we of course, don't allow smoking in any of our facilities.

However, we have many City owned vehicles and equipment that are not covered under the Alaska statues because they are not used for public transportation.

We want to put a policy in place that prohibits smoking in any City vechicle or equipment. I know this is going to cause an uproar as we have many people who currently smoke in City owned vehicles. Although, this won't stop us from instituting the policy, I want to be prepared.

- What I'm wondering is if other employers have policies that prohibit smoking in vehicles, if so, what kinds of problems have there been, if any, because of it?

- I also would like to know if your policies include smokeless tobacco? I'm really struggeling with this because there isn't really a health risk to anyone but the tobacco user, because there is no second hand smoke. Although, spitting on the ground or in cups could create an unhealth environment. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

I appreciate any thoughts or comments.

Thanks

POPEYE · December 2003

Luckily the drivers of our company vehicles don't smoke or chew so we have not had to address that. We do have smoking and non-smoking breakrooms and provide other designated smoking areas outside. Sorry I couldn't give you more info.

Just curious though, how cold has it been up North in Alaska and how much daylight do you have this time of year?

WindyAK · December 2003

Thanks for your response. I am in Unalaska. It is an Island on the Aleutian Chain about 800 miles South of Anchorage. We have very mild temperatures compared to the rest of Alaska. Our temperatures usually stay right about at freezing. It snows, it melts, it snows, it melts. We often have very high winds. In fact, just last week we had wind gusts to 119 mph. This storm blew in one of the walls of our airport about 18 inches. My son is in Fairbanks going to school and he said they had -41 about a week ago. Now that's cold.

Thanks again for your comments.

Don D · December 2003

I don't know if there are ramifications with your being a municipal entity. Many employers prohibit by policy the use of tobacco products of all kinds on their property, including inside their vehicles. Simply forbid it. The problem that you can anticipate is riding herd on it in those vehicles where you already know you have users of tobacco products. Are you, or is the city, willing to exercise discipline for policy violations? That will be the issue.

DB · December 2003

I work for a city in Illinios. The Personnel Code states that "the use of tobacco products is prohibited in City buildings and vehicles." We applied it to the union and non-union employees. The only group that has had a problem with it is Public Works, particularly during rainy weather or long periods of snowplowing. We didn't want to trade smoking for any other type of tobacco use. Besides, spilling a spit cup in a truck would be gross.

Don D · December 2003

Far be it for a city employee in a truck to do anything 'gross'.

Beave · December 2003

Public employees doing gross things in trucks???? Naw, never happens!!! I am with a County in Michigan and we simply have the department managers responsible for overseeing policies under their supervision. Much easier to oversee the compliance of the policies.

Uncas · December 2003

Windy,

In CA smoking in any "enclosed" workplace has been prohibited for many years. This includes company vehicles and personal vehicles used for business purposes. We instituted a policy banning smoking in vehicles used for business purposes, including personal vehicles where there are passengers besides the driver (ie. several people going to a seminar or meeting off site and car pooling). There was some grumbling at first, but most of the smokers affected by this recognized that simple courtesy considerations re. second hand smoke, would overrule their feelings that they had a "right" to smoke in their own vehicle. We have had no real problems with this and now everyone is on board.

Uncas

To smoke or not to smoke

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